VIRGIN'S new tilting trains have received a mixed response from Crewe passengers.

A number of the company's 52-strong fleet of high speed trains have been hit by problems since the launch of their tilting technology nine days ago.

Two of the Pendolino trains broke down on their first day servicing the West Coast Mainline.

Passengers from Holyhead-London had to start their Pendolino journey in Crewe and the flagship Pendolino train, the Royal Scot, travelling from Glasgow to London, had to be abandoned at Carlisle after a fault was detected with wheel settings.

Trains from Crewe to Manchester and London have also been hit by technical glitches.

Crewe passenger Wayne Williams was travelling to Manchester on Wednesday when there were difficulties.

He said: 'We got to Wilmslow and everything went black. We tried to get off and the doors were jammed, everything had just stopped working.'

Tilting trains are able to maintain speeds of 125mph compared with the previous 110mph because they can take bends faster without throwing passengers around.

One passenger delighted with the trains is Stuart Blackwell from Tatton Drive, Sandbach, who travelled from London to Crewe on Thursday.

He said: 'I was not aware of the significant tilt until I overheard someone say, 'it's all sky on that side and track on this'. When we got to Stafford we were 12 minutes ahead of schedule.'

A Virgin Trains spokesman said the Pendolinos are performing as expected.

He added: 'We said from the start we did not expect the first week of the timetable to go perfectly. We are running 200 services a day, and already we have more trains getting to their destination on time.

'We apologise to customers who were affected by the delays and we are trying to iron out problems.'

Journeys should get even quicker once Network Rail completes improvements to the West Coast Mainline north of Crewe.

However, work will mean disruption for travellers at weekends throughout next year as improvements stretch to Preston, Liverpool and Glasgow.